Still pumping oil when you lay it over?

wrenchard01

After the Ironman GNCC today, I had an engine noise, not terrible, but wrong. Layed it over two (several) times, once top end low, someone told me it might have stopped picking up oil. If so, whats the low down on this and does anyone know what is probably messed up? (Anybody's guess I'm sure) How much oil should be in the flywheel cover, and whats proper procedure for changing oil? will the drain plug change whats behind the cover?

grayracer513

Your YZF gets its oil supply from the oil tank in the frame, and because of the way the tank section is laid out, the frame tube has to be laying almost completely horizontal for the engine to starve the oil pump. This is not the case with most wet sump engines, which is where this little wive's tale came from. If not revved too high, or placed under a load, the engine will survive short periods without oil pressure with no damage anyway, but it's something to remember.

The flywheel cover is "in" the cranckcase, so oil is normally there. In operation, the return, or scavenge pump returns as much oil as it can get hold of back to the tank, so there won't be a lot while it's running. But as the bike sits for a number of days, oil will leak back down to the crankcase past the oil pump until eventually, all of the oil will be in the bottom. Which is something to think about before you just light the thing off and twist the grip.